Finnish (suomi)

Finnish is a Finnic language spoken by about 5 million people in
Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Canada and Russia. It is closely
related to Estonian.

Finnish starting to appear in writing during the 16th century.
The first piece of Finnish literature was a translation of the
New Testament by Michael Agricola which was published in 1548.

Until 1809 Finland was a part of Sweden and Swedish was the
official language. From 1863 the Finnish language could be used
along with Swedish when dealing with authorities. Civil servants
were obliged to use the Finnish language and issue documents in
Finnish from 1883. In 1892 Finnish became an official language
and gained a status comparable to that of Swedish. Today Finland
is officially bilingual in Finnish and Swedish.

Finnish alphabet (suomen aakkoset)

Finnish pronunciation

Notes

The letters in blue are only used in names and foreign loanwords

The letter g appears in native Finnish words in combination with N as ng [ŋ]

c = [k] when it appears before a, o and u, and [s] when in front
of e, i, y, ä and ö

Stress always falls on the first syllable of words.

Vowels and consonants can be short (written with one letter), or long
(written with two letters).

Finnish has a system of vowel harmony. There are three types of vowels:
front vowels (ä, ö, y), back vowels (a, o, u) and neutral vowels (e, i).
Front and back vowels cannot co-exist in the same word. Neutral vowels can
be used with either of the two other types. For more details, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_harmony#Finnish

Information about the pronunciation of Finnish compiled by Wolfram Siegel

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)